Botcon 2011 Hasbro Story Building Panel

For the final panel of the weekend, live blogging is not allowed so after snagging some final deals off the dealer room floor (completed my Slugslinger!) I’ve done a writeup of what Aaron and Rik discussed in the final panel talking about the Hasbro Transformers IP. Keypoints include:

The 13
– Two new members revealed, Solus Prime and Nexus Prime. Another look at some of the others including Alpha Trion[/B], Liege Maximo, Vector Prime and Megatronus aka The Fallen. Liege Maximo looks kind of like Marvel Comic’s Loki with similar horns on his head, Vector Prime has a starry cape that he seems to vanish into.
– Solus Prime is female, a pinkish purple lavender color with hair and a scepter. She is the archetype of all female Transformers. She looks like she has a Greek warrior goddess look, or possibly a blacksmith look with the apron. She is also the creator of many of the artefacts of the 13.
– The 13 are not being conceived as toys.
– Nexus Prime has a very different look to what he had previously, he’s also a combiner. Nexus Prime will play some kind of part in Exiles.
– The 13 will embody key elements of the Transformers mythos, so you have a combiner, a beat, a female, a hero, a dark hero, a Mini-Con…

Exiles Book
– Follows on from Exodus, and is set against the backdrop of the search for the Allspark.
– There will be some exploration of lost colonies of Transformers hinted at in Exodus. There will also be some more information on the 13 within the book.
– A new, major threat to the Transformers Universe will be introduced in Exodus. Concept art of their faction symbol is a variation on the Decepticon symbol which looks like a skull and crossbones.
– Concept artwork (Prime style) of these characters was shown and includes Brimstone, the Transformers Cybertron character reimagined, Cannonball again of Transformers Cybertron, and Axor, based on the Action Master. Axor will apparently play a major role in the conclusion of Exodus.

Vault Book
– Some material that did not make it into the Vault Book was shown including concepts of unmade Action Master versions of Mirage, Smokescreen and Cliffjumper. Artwork for what I assume would have been AM versions of Blurr and Rumble were also shown.

Transformers Prime, Exodus and War for Cybertron
– The final word was given on the aligned continuity.
– Each platform has its own story needs in order to be dynamic and successful. Therefore, not every detail will line up perfectly. Aaron talked about the “squint test” whereby everything can be seen to be one family of stories, but fans like us will see differences. The emphasis is on telling good, solid stories, not on making each version line up perfectly at the expense of the quality of the final product.

Universal Studios Ride
– Full 3D experience, it is like you are in the movie, with the robots next to you.
– It is directed by Michael Bay himself.
– Team responsible also did King Kong 3D, which I went on earlier this weekend. Imagining that with Transformers, based on the footage shown in the trailer… It’s going to be an awesome ride.

Generations
– Was brought up in the Q&A. Eric joined the panel and stated that as a model, Classics is not going away, although they cannot talk about future plans too much.

Prime
– Just a short note. Prime Ironhide concept was shown, he is red and white with Generation 1 styled head, a similar build to Bulkhead and Movieverse arm cannons. He looks very good, definitively the distillation of Ironhide’s best elements across the generations.

Hall of Fame
– Erector! They showed some artwork from the Hall of Fame presentation last night.
– Aaron did say he wants the Hall of Fame to be taken seriously. They enjoyed the joke and liked the laughs it gave them, but please keep it to the characters who changed the dynamic of the story. Aaron says tier C-E characters, not tier Z.
– On that note I’d like to say Sky Byte for 2012!